May 2013

May 16, 2013

On May 16, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals their ongoing work with their future "Shopping App." Apple first revealed an extensive patent filing for NFC as it related to "Shopping" back in 2010 as a companion app to their future iWallet. Just like Apple's Passbook keeps gift cards, coupons, tickets and passes into an organized app, Apple's iWallet is likely to contain another round of things that relate to their financial app and the "Shopping" feature is just one. Last week's update to the Shopping app focused on methods of setting payment option preferences and more. Today's patent application adds at least five major aspects to the "Shopping" apps patent claims. The base of the patent doesn't change much if any. It's all about securing key aspects of the invention that Apple wants to protect, just in case they have to go court over it in the future.

On May 16, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an all-new touch sensor panel design for larger displays. Today's touch sensor panels are designed like a checkerboard taking on a matrix of drive and sense lines arranged in rows and columns in horizontal and vertical directions. That may be fine for smaller touch displays but as the touch displays become larger such as those for a future MacBook or even an iMac, the current design becomes a drag on the speed of touch command execution. Apple's next generation touch sensor panel is likely to take on either a web-like design or one that incorporates thick diamond-like shapes so that the user's finger is more likely to hit the sensors faster and easier.

On May 16, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a next generation lighting system for iDevices. The new system is designed to provide superior lighting to your photos day or night in a unique manner. Apple's patent also describes a new remote light source accessory while strongly hinting that a standalone camera is still a future option of theirs. With Samsung's Galaxy Zoom or the like on the horizon, a standalone or new kind of hybrid iDevice camera or advanced camera accessory isn't out of the question for the future.

May 15, 2013

Hon Hai, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics suffered their biggest decline in sales in its history, according to a new Bloomberg report. To give this a larger perspective, a new report out of Beijing yesterday stated that "Foxconn's net loss in 2012 was US $316 million, the biggest loss it had suffered since listing in Hong Kong in 2005." So Hon Hai's downward trend has been ongoing since 2012. In April we posted a report titled "Windows 8 is a Disaster Leading the PC Sector to its Worst Quarter in Roughly 20 Years." Bloomberg echoed this in their report by stating that the "failure of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 8 to drive PC growth pushed Hon Hai's revenue down the most in at least 13 years." So Hon Hai's downward trend isn't caused by an "Apple slowdown" alone, but rather a number of problems with the tech industry at large and the company itself.

May 14, 2013

New research data from Gartner states that sales of Mobile Phones in all regions except Asia/Pacific declined in the First Quarter of 2013. The new Gartner statistics show us that Apple's iOS operating system remained in the number two spot in Q1 2013 but dropped 4.3% from the same quarter last year.

Back
in In October 2010, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed
into law a bill that made California the first state in the nation to
create a live donor registry for kidney transplants. The bill also
required California drivers to decide whether they want to be organ
donors when they renew their driver licenses. According to one
supporter, this second measure alone should double the number of organ
transplants available in California. This was a project that Apple's
late Co-Founder and CEO Steve Jobs pushed hard to get done. The registry
created by that bill opened today.

BlackBerry announced during their conference today that their BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), their mobile social network is coming to Android and iOS in the coming months. BlackBerry has more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day. The service sends and receives more than 10 billion messages each day, which is nearly double what other mobile messaging apps produce. BlackBerry states that "iOS and Android users would be able to add their contacts through PIN, email, SMS or QR code scan, regardless of platform. Android users would also be able to connect using a compatible NFC-capable device."

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two multitouch related patents. The second patent covers a movable trackpad like those associated with the iPod Classic and the Apple TV remote. The first granted patent that we cover today is for yet another major multitouch patent covering contact tracking and an identification module for touch sensing.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover three granted patents covering technologies found in iMovie and/or Final Cut Pro.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we first cover Apple's granted patent which discusses how acoustic transducers could one day be configured to accept acoustic commands that consist of tapping, scratching and other interactions with a surface of an iPad, iPhone or MacBook Pro. Our report concludes with a list of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two of Apple's patents relating to waterproofing iDevices. A waterproofing test was recently conducted by Square Trade showing how waterproofing has been upgraded in Apple's iPhone 5 and our report includes that video. Our report also covers Apple's sole granted design patent of the day covering the iPad with an email interface which includes a credit to Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs.

Late yesterday, the Nikkei reported that some 20 global companies including Electronics, NTT, Qualcomm, Ericson, China Mobile and Samsung have agreed to jointly develop a new Wi-Fi technology that is ten times faster than the current standard.

May 13, 2013

Although Samsung is the world's biggest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions and supplier of chips and flat-screens, Samsung continues to pay outsiders billions of dollars in return for using patents in semiconductors, displays and other software. Samsung wants to have first access to cheaper home grown ideas and solutions in the future and in order to get their hands on this new technology Samsung has set up the new "Samsung Future Technology Foundation."

It's being reported today that ABC will be quietly revolutionizing its app for iPhones and iPads with a button called "live." Users around New York and Philadelphia will be able to live-stream all the programming from ABC's local stations there, the first time that any major broadcaster has turned on such a technology.